You can’t witness process of reconfiguration of BVAS – INEC tells Labour Party

You can’t witness process of reconfiguration of BVAS – INEC tells Labour Party

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rejected the Labour Party’s request to witness the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines (BVAS) which the commission has got approval to carry out.

But the rejection has not gone down well with the party, which argued that there was no way the commission can carry out an honest reconfiguration and back up the data retrieved from the BVAS machines without the presence of independent witnesses and representatives of political parties.

The Chief Spokesman for the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, who expressed the party’s displeasure with the INEC’s rejection, noted that it was wrong for the commission to claim that it had backed up the data from the BVAS without any witness.

He argued that the commission has always changed its rule of engagement to cover up some of the anomalies they earlier observed.

He said, “Are we privy or invited to see what was being backed up? If there is going to be transparency, what INEC needs to do is to invite everybody with their technological experts to see what the commission intends to back up from the original source. Was this done?

“We didn’t want to use that as evidence in the court of law. INEC should not forget that we also have our own results. Anything contradictory to that particular result and what they backed up will be totally unacceptable to us.

“It is clear right from the beginning that INEC deliberately went to court for reconfiguration of the BVAS machines after Obi requested to inspect election materials. Of course, nobody, not even you and I, know the commission can come up with anything like reconfiguration at this time. This was done after we demanded to inspect those machines.

“When you are going into an arrangement, it is always important to tell people about the rule of engagement and ensure you don’t change it. But INEC keeps on changing the rule of engagement in order to cover their shady deals. It is unfortunate that we have to bring INEC down to this particular level.”

While stating that they had lost confidence in the capacity of the commission to hold a free and fair election, the LP campaign spokesman noted that Obi was consulting with his lawyers to determine whether or not to appeal the court ruling on BVAS reconfiguration.

Tanko also warned the electoral body to endeavour to raise its standard and seek to do the right thing to avoid incurring the wrath of the masses.